“MIMESIS SE19: That kind of picture” Poster image. ©Mimesis Art MuseumMimesis Art Museum presents a solo exhibition “MIMESIS SE19: That kind of picture” by Doojin Ahn, through July 28. Ahn’s work generates new paintings that resemble natural objects. The artist’s concept of “image+quark=imaquark” is the smallest particle in an image, which combines with each other like particles in nature to create a landscape painting with a strange atmosphere.
The artist’s intentions, themes, and narratives do not exist in his works, which evoke different emotions in different viewers. Ahn is experimenting with the possibility of a new kind of painting in which the artist’s actions do not become the omniscient subject of the painting, and the smallest unit of the image, the imaquark, takes over that role. The artist repeatedly enlarges, reduces, overlaps, and arranges the imaquark on the canvas with brushes in the sizes of No. 0 and No. 1 the basic units, in an attempt to minimize his own sense and expression.
This exhibition examines Ahn’s journey of invention (discovery) and transformation of the imaquark. Organized chronologically, the exhibition follows Ahn’s experimental process of exploring new paintings from the time he gave the name imaquark to the smallest unit of the image to the present day.
Born in 1975, Ahn graduated from Hongik University with a BFA and MFA in painting. Starting with a solo exhibition at the Gyeonggi Arts Center (Suwon) in 2005, Ahn held solo exhibitions at PS Sarubia (Seoul) in 2008, Cais Gallery (Hong Kong) in 2009, SongEun Art Space (Seoul) in 2011, Space Can (Beijing) in 2012, Johyun Gallery (Busan) in 2014, and LEEHWAIK Gallery (Seoul) in 2022. Major group exhibitions in Korea and abroad include CHRISIE’S Gallery (New York) in 2013, MMCA (Cheongju) in 2019, Gwangju Museum of Art (Gwangju) in 2020, and Daegu Museum of Art (Daegu) in 2024.
